Scott Arendse played tennis for 12 hours to raise money for his friend Obey Togarepi who was diagnosed with Kidney failure and needed dialysis. He is planning to do it all again!
Obey Togarepi is a Zimbabwean living and working in South Africa, he experienced an awful realisation when he was diagnosed with Kidney failure and the hospital he was at, told him to go home and spend time with his family. The hospital refused to give him life saving treatment even though he had a legal work permit.
Obey couldn’t give up so he and his wife used most of their monthly salary to have dialysis twice a week. While his health was improving thanks to the treatment his total dialysis bill hit over 100K quickly! This is when Scott Arendse stepped in to help make a difference.
“Last May, I organised a tennis marathon, ‘Serving for Obey’, in which I played non-stop for 12 hours. The idea was to raise funds to assist Obey, but also to raise awareness around his plight. It seemed crazy that a human being contributing to the economy couldn’t receive treatment via the state. I set out to show Obey that, despite this, there are people who do care.”
Scott managed to raise R 30,000.00 at his ‘Serving for Obey’ event which was a massive help towards Obey and his family. But it only made a small dent!
Scott refuses to give up and is hosting a ‘Second Serving for Obey‘. Thankfully Obey applied for private medical cover and will have reached his one year exclusion period on the 1st of June 2017, meaning that all his dialysis costs will be covered by his medical aid and he will be able to have access to his salary again.
“This event will be to celebrate Obey’s first milestone on the road to full recovery, to thank those who made it possible and to alleviate at least some of the outstanding debt still owed. There is still a long way to go, but there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.”
This is a moving story about two strangers standing together in hard times and becoming like family!
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